“The French language inspires absolute love in me”

This one on stage is an adaptation of Nicolas Bouvier’s travel story. Tell us more…

In the summer of 1953, Nicolas Bouvier and his friend, the painter Thierry Vernet, embarked on a long journey across the Balkans, heading back towards India, in a Fiat Topolino. This initiatory story was a real shock to read, a nugget that I wanted to share with the public.

What does this artistic choice reveal about you?

As a Franco-Swiss, I am keen to introduce some of our authors who are too little known in France. At the moment, I am immersed in the stories of Isabelle Eberhardt and Ella Maillart, two great travelers.

The piece you could watch a hundred times?

Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen, directed by Patrice Chéreau in 1981 and in which Gérard Desarthe played the title role. Fascinated by his game, I took him as a model. Then he became my teacher, and my director in The Cid .

A good way to connect with nature?

Three years ago, I went hiking alone in the Jura. Giving up comfort, facing the elements, interacting with strangers: this experience gave me incredible joy and gave me access to an unexplored dimension of myself.

A quality that you would be proud to pass on?

My absolute love for the French language, passed on to me by my own father. A poet in his spare time, he had an obsession with the right word. By often reading texts to my four children, I, in turn, communicated to them my passion for literature. This is their best legacy.

An inspiring place?

Le Salève, in Haute-Savoie, a sublime place from which you can contemplate the Alps on one side and the Jura on the other. Every time I get to the top, I think of my father, who went there well into his old age.

A cause you would get involved in?

Brotherhood! I like reading Kessel, Bouvier, Saint-Exupéry, because these writers reach out to others with open eyes and hearts. Far from diminishing us, the discovery of the foreigner enriches us, they tell us in essence.

The beauty that will save the world?

I have adopted this very inspiring phrase from Gilbert Keith Chesterton as my own: “The world will never die for lack of wonder, but only for lack of wonder.” »